smug

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (4)  · 
“
He's reviled as a smug, arrogant guy all over the AFC West.

View all »
Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. adjective Exhibiting or feeling great or offensive satisfaction with oneself or with one's situation; self-righteously complacent: "the smug look of a toad breakfasting on fat marsh flies” (William Pearson).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 172 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Perhaps akin to Low German smuck, neat, from Middle Low German, from smucken, to adorn.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. Early modern English also smoog; for *smuck, from Middle Low German Low German smuk = NFries. smok = German schmuck = Danish smuk = Swedish dial. smuck, smöck (G. and Scandinavian forms recent and prob. from Low German, but apparently ult. of Middle High German origin), neat, trim, spruce, elegant, fair; from the noun, Middle High German gesmuc, German schmuck, ornament, from Middle High German smücken, German schmücken = Middle Low German smucken, ornament, adorn, orig. dress, a secondary form of Middle High German smiegen = Anglo-Saxon smeógan, creep into, hence put on (a garment): see smock, n.
  2. from smug, a.
  3. Prob. abbreviation of smuggle, or from the same source.
  4. Perhaps so called as being blackened with soot or smoke (see smudge), or else as being “a neat, handy fellow” (Halliwell).
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/sməg/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a month.

Recently looked up

coolant · scabrid · cardiorespiratory · shoves · disordered

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

be careful! the razor is razor-sharp! · minty-fresh death threat · please stop sucking the monkeybread · beauregard · unicycle hockey